Hardass Space Adventures

In space, no one can hear your ringtone.

Looks like Lyle is out and a new chronicles are just beginning. This one's called Hardass Space Adventures. If you couldn't tell by the title, there's a measure of adult humor in the mix. And a whole lot of Hardass.

Halo 3 Mythic Walkthrough Updated

The Ark 2.0.

Tyrant concludes his Halo 3 Mythic (SLASO) Walkthrough by giving you the best path through The Ark on Halo 3's most difficult setting. Don't worry though, he's not done doling out the tips and tricks. We hear he's got ODST on tap too. For now, check out his walkthrough of what may be the most difficult Halo 3 level. If you're gonna try it yourself, all we can say is good luck.

'Star Fell' - Halo 3 Hybrid Machinima

What do you get when you blend Halo 3 machinima with CGI? You get Star Fell. Check it out.

"After a tragic event with the UNSC Star Fell Fifty Years ago, two Spartans are sent to a remote planet to find out what really happened there.
Enjoy high quality CGI and Machinima, mixed with a compelling story and intense voice actors."

Halo: Reach Score: Mobilized and Ready

Marty's giving out his gift early this year.

Channel 9 and Inside Xbox conducted an interview with Marty O'Donnell that you might want to check out. It's over fifteen minutes long and goes pretty in-depth with the man who writes our songs. You can grab it here.

You might also want to head over to the Halo: Reach project page. We just deployed a new audio file. Marty says he was aiming for something somber and visceral that highlighted Noble Team's attitude. In his words, "these folks don't panic and they're never in a hurry." You? You should hurry up and snag the track. Click the link below to get your adrenaline pumping.

'403' Remastered

"Hey everyone!
I bet you didn't think you'd be hearing from me so soon after my last Mandlbaum did you? Well, I have a special treat ready just in time for the Holidays! Way back in July 2008, before I even knew of submitting Machinimas into B.net, I released my very first (High Quality) Machinima : '403.'

Well, recently I fell into the opportunity to change the soundtrack to something more suitable and unique, and decided to go ahead and revamp the whole movie! All the audio and video has had it's quality raised considerably (No HD though, since it wasn't originally shot in HD). If I do say so myself, this movie feels and watches considerably better with these changes. In lieu of this occasion, I figured that I'd give this movie the big release it always deserved! You may even notice that it stars one of Halo 2's greatest Machinima actors: Frank Sixer from HollywoodHalo! (Ah, the memories.)

As for the plot, here it is:
Three Friends enter a Big Team Battle game whilst in the middle of an interesting conversation regarding Recon Armor (back when it was rare). Along the way, they run into the many types of people you encounter on XBL: The N00b, the A-Hole, the Sniper, and more! I tried to make this movie as close to a real-life BTB game as possible, I think it worked really well. In fact, I think all Halo players have lived this game once or twice!

Each video also has in-video (as well as in-description) links to the next and previous parts.
With a total running time of around 16 minutes, this video is sure to put a smile on your face and have you ready to go kick ass in BTB with your buds! So sit back and enjoy this remastered TripleZeroFilms classic! (Overdone head bobbing and all!) And as always, Adult Language.
Happy Holidays everyone! See you in 2009!"

Arm The Flag Radio: Reach

While you wait on our official studio podcast, you should kill some time with Arm the Flag. Their sixth episode is Reach speculation, round table style. Tune in and tell 'em what you think after the jump.

"AnTi PROx, xDestinyx3, Infected Shadow, ODST Alpha, t3h Spooner and Divine Plan from Arm The Flag recently sat down and had a round table discussion about their expectations and thoughts about Halo: Reach!"

Bungie Favorites Updated

Heading into the Holidays.

Since we're gonna be taking a two week break beginning this weekend, we updated Bungie Favorites all by ourselves this morning. So, if you don't like 'em, you can stick it right up your File Share. We got feelings too, you know!

'Pretty Bunny' - A Halo 3 Trick Jumping Video

Elvish shows off his skills in this solo trick jumping video. Shot in HD with simple editing, he gives you the out of body experience and then shows you how he did it in first person. Nice ups! Check it out.

"This is a video I decided to make for fun, and this is my first solo video I have made. Most of these jumps I did about four months ago, and I just never put them in a video. The editing was done by HyruIe, one of my friends, and it is mostly basic editing. Big thanks to the filmer and make sure to watch it in HD!

'.exe' - A Halo 3 Montage

Another montage for your Wednesday morning viewing pleasure. This one's features a creative execution and some slick editing. Check it out.

"This is a Halo 3 montage from Roadblock entitled, '.exe,' featuring editing from passTHEword and an awesome intro from Zanster. It's only a mere 2 minutes long, but packs quite a punch with a never seen before editing premise. Enjoy!"

'Status Quo' - Halo 3 Teamtage Trailer

One minute and twenty two seconds of trailer that (in my opinion) could pass for a full on montage. Check it out. If you like what you see, keep an eye out for the final cut.

"This is the trailer for the MLG pro team, Status Quo's, upcoming Halo 3 teamtage, edited by passTHEword and Insane. The gameplay looks amazing and so is the editing. And like the majority of high profile Halo videos nowadays, this trailer is in crystal clear high definition. Enjoy!"

HaloContest's November '09 Winners

Screenshots and streaming video.

Morpheus unplugged and stopped by HBO to let everybody know that their selections for November have been made. If you want to see them, you can hit the link below. If you want to participate in coming months, you can find out how to enter after the jump.

Average Joe - Lord Spanky

Not patient enough.

Lord Spanky has been patiently waiting for his turn in the Average Joe machine. Well, I just flipped a lever, turned a dial, and we're gonna run this sucker through the ringer. If you met him online and wanted to learn more about him (man, aren't you a glutton for punishment), strap in, buckle up, pull on a helmet, and get read to ride. Or just read this interview. Whatever.

Q. Who are you and what do you do?

A. My name is Shane, I'm 17, and I'm currently a Senior in High School. I live in Ohio, but if any of you want to find out the city I live in, you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. Which is a paradox, sort of, because you'd have to know where I was first in order to kill me in order to pull the information from my hands.

You see why I'm so deadly.

As for my hobbies, they are not many; the simple pleasures, really. I enjoy playing videogames, primarily with Bungie.net people on Bungie-produced games, I enjoy reading several Science Fiction and Fantasy novel series, I enjoy making theories on the Haloverse (that's right guys, check out that Universe Forum from time to time. I've got some interesting stuff in there…) and I enjoy talking with my girlfriend when the chance comes 'round, which is just about every day. Beyond that my life exists as a mundane reflection of the typical obligations of a Senior: homework, school, studying, failing to get enough sleep.

Q. Sleep is important. Always remember to settle in at a decent hour. Your mind and body will thank you. How did you settle into your gamertag?

A. Oh hell. Alright, before we go anywhere, I would like to let everyone know, right now, that I am NOT a snake, nor is my name pronounced "Snake-y". It's actually "Snak-ie", due to some crazy/awesome English law or whatnot.

Now that that's out of the way, my name originated from way back in the day, 'round 8th or 9th grade, when myself and my friends were just wee lads. For some reason we got together and started making up words; I don't remember our exact motivation for this, but I can assure you all that we were under the influence of nothing more than caffeine. One of the new "words" was "Shnakie", but jmh9072, a previous Average Joe and one of my closer friends, mispronounced it "Snakie" the day or two before I made my first account. The first account was made as "Lord Shnakie", the correct pronunciation, but I promptly forgot the e-mail account attached to it and never used it again. The very next day, I used jmh's mispronunciation of "Snakie" to create this account name, and it's stuck with me for over three years now, also becoming my first (and only) gamertag.

The way I look at it, the origins were… odd, to say the least, but the outcome is a unique name that I've really carved out for myself, something that doesn't very easily get lost in all the clutter around it. For that, at least, I'm thankful.

Q. Now that we've got the name and the correct pronunciation, how 'bout telling us where you hang out when you visit Bungie.net and what in particular you like about this here place?

A. Hmm… what do I like in particular? Well, when I joined B.net back in '06, I was under pressure from jmh to participate in the big theory threads in the Halo 3 Forum. That was when I met my first big-shots, like ICEMAN ASSASS1N and opogjijijp, and when I got my first big taste of the theory scene, which is one I have continued to populate through my time on this site. I also learned quite a bit about game mechanics and creation from my early days in that forum, too, and gained a healthy… er… disrespect for the rules. I do believe that four out of my… well… six warnings came from pre-'08.

After making a few too many threads to do with a particular theory of mine and getting called a jackass by several users (by essentially making sure people saw it by creating "new" versions that had barely nothing different from the original, I won't deny it) I left the public forums in favor of the privates, where I joined some of my more memorable groups, such as the Council of Spartans (which has since died) and KOTOR, of which I am still a big part. My time posting only in Private Chapters continued for about a year, until I jumped back out to the forum scene in July of '08, at which point the big controversy about the E3/ODST news release was going on. I tried to help out a bit, but forgot to check the rules and posted in a recon thread, which landed me my first ban and an additional warning, which made me angry enough to actually forsake the Halo 3 Forum (like it was that forum's fault!) and travel elsewhere. Namely, the Community.

Ahh, the Community. As much as it's a center for thought-provoking discussion and site updates, it's a cesspit of elitism and repeat threads. Nevertheless, I have been posting there for well over a year now, and it's important to mention in my cycle of site travel (and growing maturity). The Community contributed to fixing my horrible arrogance problem, my writing style, and my thought processes. More than any other group or forum on the site, the Community has molded my mind into the Snakie that you see the words flowing from this day. But the Community isn't my favorite forum, not anymore… more like just the place where I post the most. A few months ago, with the introduction of the Bungie Universe forum, I've sort of… migrated, in a sense. A forum made entirely for theorists? I about died in ecstasy. That's where it's all at, at least for now.

Q. So, why gaming?

A. Gaming is a communal thing for me; I don't do it for the enjoyment a game itself brings, not unless I've got no choice. If I've got no internet, I play one of my single-player games. But, if I've got internet, I'm playing so I can hang out with friends and like-minded individuals. I may get on a single-player game, but I'll still be in a party with friends. It's just the way I am: I have to play with people if I have the option to, or at least talk to them. At the same time, though, the people I happen to have on my friends list for the most part are users from this very site. I suppose I enjoy hanging out with people from this place even in my time away from it. I'm in love with it that much, I suppose.

Q. What was the first Bungie title you fell in love with?

A. I jumped on the bandwagon with Halo: CE. I was young at the time, perhaps 8 or 9, and my cousin had an Xbox and the game. So he came over to my house and we spent the day playing on Easy, because we couldn't do anything harder. I remember the sense of awe that stuck with me to this day, though: the feeling that something's going to jump out and end me every time I come to a corner, the horror at the discovery of the Flood, the mystery of the story itself. That, more than anything else, is why I remain a theorist to this day. My goal is to find those mysteries.

Q. Spoilers! (Are you surprised by your level of community involvement?)

A. Not really, no. I'm currently living in a semi-gutted house that we've had under renovation for some time now, and my existing entertainment basically consists of two TVs (only one with cable), the internet, books, and videogames. Videogames are great, and I've spent 137 hours on a single profile in Fallout 3 (impressive, right?), but that can't take up all of my time any more than reading Frank Herbert's Dune three times in a row can (oh yes, I've done that). The obvious answer? Internet. The obvious place? Bungie. It flexes my brain at the same time it gives me carpel tunnel. What more could a guy ask!

Q. Dunno. Do you check out any other online communities on a regular basis?

A. No, I'm pretty much attached to Bungie.net at the hip. I've briefly tried out other such sites, but I keep bring drawn back to Bungie.net for a myriad of reasons, and I never seem to return to the other ones. I think it's really mainly because I've already got quite a bit of friends here, I'm aware of the site rules, and, to be quite frank, Bungie.net is ten times more organized (and better) than all those other guys, anyway.

Q. Wanna yell at some people and say what's up?

A. This is going to be quite long.

Before all else, I have an interesting fact to bring up: my hometown is getting a Mythic/Joe monopoly. Myself, jmh9072, and BerserkerBarrage are all from the same state, not to mention the same city, and are now all Occasional-Mythics (at the least) and Average Joes! Favoritism, urk? For shame!

Now that that's done:

First and foremost, I want to give a shout-out to my buddy jmh9072, fellow sometimes-Mythic member, fellow Ohioan, fellow Average Joe, and the very reason I'm being graced with this article today. It's all down to you, mate.

Right behind jmh, I want to give a shout to my best e-buddy burritosenior, who is the God-King of the Halo 3 Forum. PM him for me, guys, until he decides to give up trying to make me join Mythic Members.

Behind burrito I want to give shout-outs to the entire Community and Universe forum, along with my favorite private group, KOTOR (simply because the sheer magnitude of these shout-outs, they come before the rest of you guys, my apologies). To quote Bilbo Baggins like the massive Tolkein nerd I am, "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Next up, Robby118, my Bungie.net stalker. I didn't forget you, you creepy ass. Along with Robby comes YahwehFreak4evr, who is another creepy stalker. And what the hell, I'll throw hamdog in there as well, even though he's not really a stalker. Oh, and Duardo. He's not really a stalker, either, but he tried to steal my docs.

Next group includes the best theorists still on this site, and very close acquaintances and friends of mine. I salute you: SpoonGuard, Wolverfrog, Agustus, opogjijijp, and MLG Cheehwawah.